Homegrown hero Shane Lowry keeps the pace in this year's Irish Open tournament

Shane Lowry enjoyed the opening day at the Irish Open in Kildare (Image: INPHO/Cathal Noonan)

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Shane Lowry is sure making the most of home comforts this week.

When he shook up the golfing world by winning the Irish Open as an amateur in 2010, Lowry was still living at the family home in Clara.

Three years on he’s also a winner as a pro on the European Tour and now calls Carton House his home.

Yesterday he made full use of home advantage by leading the first round Irish charge with a five under par 67 alongside Michael Hoey, getting around in one shot less than debutant Cian McNamara.

“A lot of people are saying there’s going to be a lot of added pressure on me, it being my home course and me living here,” said Lowry.

“But I try to turn it around and it’s more of an incentive to play well.

“Its really a privilege to be able to play on my own course, stay in my own house and have all of my family up from home to watch me.

“What more could a professional golfer want?”

Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley insists that Lowry does have an edge on a course on a course that the 26-year-old admits he knows “like the back of my hand.”

McGinley played well himself yesterday and is well positioned three shots behind Lowry.

“Home advantage is always an advantage,” said McGinley.

“There’s definitely an advantage in knowing the golf course. I don’t think there’s anyone in the field who knows the course as well as him, so we shall see.

“I don’t want to put too much pressure and expectation on him. Good luck to him.”

Thomas Bjorn – the winner when the tournament was last played at the co Kildare venue in 2006 – was hugely impressed by his playing partner.

“Shane played brilliant,” said Bjorn. “You can see he believes he can play this golf course and he played really well and solid, and just kept plodding away and took his chances when he got them.

“I thought he played really nice today.”

Lowry was still wet behind the ears when he stunned the field by clinching his national Open on the Baltray links.

Despite the rain pelting down yesterday morning – making a mockery of the pre-tournament forecast – he made hay.

Initially it appeared that the pressure might get to him. As his playing partner Rory McIlroy floundered, Lowry got off to a disappointing start by bogeying his first hole – the 10th.

McGinley has described the bunkers on the Montgomerie course as links-like in their difficulty and the Offaly man found himself chipping out of one on his first fairway.

But he responded brilliantly, reeling off three birdies on the spin from 13 through 16 and produced three more for an opening 67.

That leaves him in second place with Hoey, American Peter Uhlein and Dutchman Joost Luiten behind 29-year-old Swede Oscar Floren, who shot a six-under par 66 despite complaining of tendonitis.

“I knew there were 17 holes left, 71 holes in the tournament – that’s really the way to think about it,” reasoned Lowry after his opening setback.

If there’s another difference between this week and his ‘09 breakthrough success, it’s this – while Lowry travelled without any hope of winning to Baltray, he now resides in expectation at Carton House.

“I went up to Baltray just happy to be there and tried to enjoy every minute of it,” he recalled.

“I wasn’t going there trying to win. I would have been happy going home with four rounds under my belt but obviously I came away with a lot more than that.

“This week and ‘09 are like chalk and cheese, really. The preparation going into it is different.

“And you can say I’m coming coming into this week trying to win.

“I know I’m swinging the club well and playing well, so I just stand up and hit it and see where it goes.”